One Of Two Infinity Ward Co-Founder Lawsuit Claims Dismissed By Judge

We're still waiting for the trial related to Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella leaving Activision to begin, but as of this week, West and Zampella have had one of their lawsuit claims against Activision dismissed by a judge.

Bloomberg reports that state superior court judge Elihu Berle has dismissed the fraudulent-inducement claim by West and Zampella.

Using my extremely basic and quite possibly incorrect understanding of legal terms, fraudulent inducement essentially refers to tricking someone into contractually agreeing to something that's against their best interests. In the case of West and Zampella, I believe that would refer to the duo's claim that Activision convinced them to extend their contract with the publisher after the release of the first Modern Warfare by way of a Memorandum of Understanding assuring that Infinity Ward could move onto something new after Modern Warfare 2.

That claim is no longer headed to court, but the same judge let West and Zampella's claim of promissory fraud remain. Again, my personal understanding may be off here, but I believe that the promissory fraud claim relates to the millions of dollars in royalties from Modern Warfare 2 that West and Zampella say Activision avoided paying by firing them.

This situation is certainly complicated and confusing, but we're hopefully marching steadily toward the end. If all goes as planned, the official trial will begin in May.